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Some Little Known Facts on the Notorious Mosquito

Did you know there are about 3,000 different species of mosquitoes? These little pests can be found all over the world, with 176 of those species inhabiting the United States. Mosquitoes are known to have been sucking blood on our planet since the Triassic Period, that’s about 400 million years ago! The word mosquito is actually a Spanish term, which translates as “little fly”. In our experience here at Mosquito Squad, and most likely in your back yard as well, we have seen that the mosquito is much more menacing than a “little fly”. These vectors of disease kill more people on our planet than any other animal out there. In fact, every thirty seconds there will be a death in the world due to a mosquito-spread disease, that’s over three million deaths a year. Some diseases are more commonly known than others, malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, West Nile virus, and most recently seen in the United States, the ZIKA virus.

Only female mosquitoes bite, this is because they need protein from blood in order to produce eggs. However, males and females rely on nectar from plant life to survive. Female mosquitoes have been known to be attracted to certain physical traits in humans more than others. If you’re in the yard working or playing, your body is most likely producing higher levels of CO2, the more CO2 you produce, the more attractive you are to mosquitoes. Larger people tend to produce more CO2, which causes them to naturally be bitten more frequently. In addition to C02 production, mosquitoes also tend to be more attracted to blonde hair over darker colored hair. This is somewhat surprising because mosquitoes are attracted to dark clothing, so you would expect the darker hair to be more attractive. Women are also more attractive to mosquitoes than men, as a result of the difference in hormones produced by the sexes. Mosquitoes can detect a warm body and chemical signals at distances of 25 to 35 meters, and the more you move around the easier it becomes for a mosquito to detect you.

After all of that info, if you’re a larger person with blonde hair, who loves wearing dark clothing, Mosquito Squad can STILL guarantee your satisfaction in mosquito reduction.